Good morning from the CZ

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by tereza, Apr 1, 2017.

  1. tereza

    tereza New Member

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    Hi everyone,
    we moved to the Czech Republic from Tasmania, Australia two years ago and have since been restoring 1930's homestead with an old orchard. I have completed PDC a few years ago now and couldn't wait to put it to use in my very own home, as most of you could imagine and empathise with, but am now struggling with some of the apects of our site and even with this knowledge under my belt I can't quite work it out...
    The main issue is, the property is on a slope with the house right at the bottom one the East side and a strip of land about 30m wide going up and up for about 350m towards the West, so basically a long noodle. Most of this is an old fruit and nut orchard with a smallish cleared area adjacent to the house with a new veggie patch and some chooks. Not bad you might think, but on both sides we are surrounded by fields and our property is the only piece of greenery in a sea of brown....many of you probably know this too. And it is because of this lack of neighbours that we suffer from pretty big winds, especially drying winds in the warmer months, but coming from the South almost always (that's where the long stretch of fields is, on the North side there is a village in a couple of hundred metres). And that's my biggest issue - I fully understand the function of windbreaks and I hope I also know how to apply them, but since the property is really not wide at all, if I am to plant a reasonably tall windbreak in order to make some impact I will pretty much condemn half the land into semi permanent shade, in winter almost permanent... I can't even create sun traps, as the winds literally always come from this sunny open side...any ideas, please...??? I've been thinking about it for the last two years a lot and finally decided to just go for it, build a fence to create some privacy straight away since everyone from the road can see us and then plant some shade tolerant bushes and trees in front of it, but i would love to hear someone else's perspective - maybe the solution is so simple I just keep missing it...? i'm also thinking a big polytunnel for some more sensitive plants and veggies and then just concentrate on the shade loving ones.
    Please help, if you have any ideas...thank you!
     
  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Hi Tereza and welcome!
    Congratulations on your property! Could you plant a windbreak of limited height, which would lift the wind while still providing sun just over the top in the winter? Are you hoping to windbreak the entire south border (ie. wind relief for the house and orchard)?
     
  3. tereza

    tereza New Member

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    Thank you for the welcome and the suggestion! Yes I have been thinking about a lower windbreak since last weekend, more shrubs and bushes rather than tall trees. It's funny, of course since I posted that thread the wind has been coming mostly from the opposite, the Northern side, although the last two years that's almost never happened!

    Anyway the most care and input wold go to quite a small area, maybe twenty metres long to protect the main vegetable garden, but then the whole span of the noodle orchard would really benefit from a windbreak I'm sure... Being surrounded by commercial fields, you can imagine what kind of temporary neighbours we have to put up with, mainly in spring when all the spraying gets done.. :\ Also we are going to introduce some sheep into the system in one month and they would benefit from the added protection. And of course, a bit of privacy wouldn't go astray...But being so big, it would probably have to mainly be something we can propagate ourselves, maybe hazelnut shoots from our many mature hazelnut trees?? I don't know how closely we could plant them but it would be a free row of plants, what do you think?
     
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  4. BajaJohn

    BajaJohn Member

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    Would planting trees on the north side help if your property is very narrow? Windbreak effects occur upwind of the obstruction for a distance of between 2 and 5 times the height of the windbreak. It is much more on the downwind side, about 30 times the height (https://extension.psu.edu/plants/plasticulture/production-details/windbreaks). The advantage is that you wouldn't get any shading effect of the windbreak over your garden.
     
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  5. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Hi Tereza,
    I see you have Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) nearby. This is my favorite support species tree as it is an excellent firewood, rot resistant posts, nitrogen fixing, coppices/pollards easily, can grow from seed or cuttings, and grows quickly. Although the foliage isn't thick, it would be a good species to interplant with whatever other windbreak trees you choose.
    The wild hazelnut trees here are many-trunked and grow quite thickly ... but I don't know if yours are similar. I might mix in a few different tree species with your hazelnuts. Windbreaks are most effective with about 50% permeability, which for a single row requires fairly close spacing. You can adjust the permeability with black locust by simply pruning or coppicing for firewood (you are looking at rocket mass heaters for winter heating, right?)
    = )
     

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